In his former role as U.S. Attorney for the District of Miami Alexander Acosta was one of the senior DOJ officials involved in the Jeffrey Epstein case. Mr. Acosta has explained his role and justified all the actions of his office over a decade ago. However, the media and political opponents to the administration are using Acosta to attack the Trump cabinet.

Today President Trump and Labor Secretary Acosta announce the decision to depart from the administration. President Trump doesn’t want Acosta to resign, but understands he is doing so in order to stop any further distractions to the administration and labor dept.

.

[Transcript] THE PRESIDENT: I think he was a great Labor Secretary, not a good Labor Secretary. He’s done a fantastic job. He’s a friend of everybody in the administration. And I got a call this morning, early, from Alex. And I think he did a very good job yesterday. Under a lot of pressure, he did a fantastic job and he explained it. He made a deal that people were happy with, and then, 12 years later, they’re not happy with it. You’ll have to figure all of that out.

But the fact is, he has been a fantastic Secretary of Labor. And Alex called me this morning and he wanted to see me. And I actually said, “Well, we have the press right out here, so perhaps you just want to say it to the press.”

But I just want to let you know, this was him, not me, because I’m with him. He was a — he’s a tremendous talent. He’s a Hispanic man. He went to Harvard. A great student. And, in so many ways, I just hate what he’s saying now because we’re going to miss him.

But, please, Alex.

SECRETARY ACOSTA: Thank you, Mr. President. Over the last week, I’ve seen a lot of coverage of the Department of Labor, and what I have not seen is the incredible job creation that we’ve seen in this economy — more than 5 million jobs. I haven’t seen that workplace injuries are down, bucking a three-year trend; workplace fatalities are down, bucking a three-year trend; that we had the safest year ever in mining, the lowest number of fatalities ever in mining.

I have seen coverage of this case that is over 12 years old, that had input and vetting at multiple levels of the Department of Justice. And as I look forward, I do not think it is right and fair for this administration’s Labor Department to have Epstein as the focus, rather than the incredible economy that we have today.

And so I called the President this morning. I told him that I thought the right thing was to step aside. You know, Cabinet positions are temporary trusts. It would selfish for me to stay in this position and continue talking about a case that’s 12 years old, rather than about the amazing economy we have right now.

And so I submitted my resignation to the President –effective seven days from today, effective one week from today — earlier this morning.

Q If the Secretary explained himself, as you say he did two days ago, why the need for him to resign?

THE PRESIDENT: There’s no need at all, as far as I’m concerned. I would have — I watched Alex yesterday. I thought Alex did a great job. And, you know, you could always second guess people, and you could say it should have been tougher. They do it with me all the time. I make a great deal with anybody, and then they say — like, the Democrats — “Oh, it could have been better.”

I got $1.2 billion settlement fined from a company, from ZTE. And the next day — and everybody couldn’t believe it. The next day, the Democrats said, “Oh, he should have gotten more.” So you can always be second guessed. That’s what people do.

I just want to tell you: This is a person that I’ve gotten to know. There hasn’t been an ounce of controversy at the Department of Labor until this came up. And he’s doing this not for himself; he’s doing this for the administration.

And, Alex, I think you’ll agree. I said, “You don’t have to do this.” He doesn’t have to do this.

Q Why would you — why would you accept his resignation?

Q But you accepted the resignation. You accepted the — why did you accept the resignation if he hasn’t done anything wrong?

THE PRESIDENT: I do, and we have — we have — as everybody knows, we have Pat Pizzella, who right now is a deputy, and he’ll be Acting for a period of time. I think you know Pat. He’s a good man, highly recommended by Alex. But Pat is going to be Acting, and we’ve already informed him.

You know the old saying “if you lie down with dogs, you get fleas”. This was inevitable as it is another example of poor vetting before being appointed. I agree Acosta to be an honorable man, who did what lawyers do.

Who lay down with what dog? If Acosta working at the DoJ and following the chain of command is laying down with dogs, there’s a few hundred thousand people with fleas, and Trump may as well resign since he’ll never find anyone qualified to be in his cabinet who doesn’t have fleas.

There are plenty of incredible people ready and capable of leading organizations like Labor that have both the ability and moral compass. Acosta is a very smart guy, but he failed the moral compass test. Sure he was dealt a challenging situation, but guess what, the swamp is full of these dilemmas. We need courageous people in these key positions to help make the changes to our struggling/corrupt government.
Let me add, those that recommended him for the cabinet were wrong and have not served our President or country well. Great to see Acosta go and I hope he takes those that pushed him for the position with him.

Particularly if he told transition officials that someone higher than he told him to back off prosecuting Epstein…as has been reported.

That was, perhaps, what caused someone to take another look at Epstein.

The left could not keep themselves from trying to tar POTUS with this issue, so it has finally been widely reported by many who ignored it previously. I believe POTUS standing behind Acosta insured more extensive reporting.

I also believe SDNY was handed a fecal topped bagel, and are going to be forced to chew on it, with some serious issues possibly revealed. I think the only reason why there has been so much action against Epstein in such a short period of time is because of the documents that were ordered unsealed in the Giuffre civil suit.

Having lived in and around the swamp for longer than I care to admit, those that excel in that environment may be disqualified out of hand. This is one aspect that attracted me to Trump very early in the primary along with the quality and quantity of his detractors. You know, judge a man by the quality of his enemies.
For Acosta specifically there are many flaws beginning with his principles and priorities. The convoluted rationalization of not informing the victims prior to the deal in order to avoid biasing further civil litigation misses the clear requirement by law to do so. But more importantly the lack of ethical allegiance, respect, and support to the victims, (and there were so many of them) is astonishing.
If he had an once of courage, he should have defended his action at the time to the victims. He should have told them that he and the other prosecutors didn’t think they could stand up to Epstein’s defense superstars and that they thought that was the best they could do. From what I could tell, he didn’t do that and he left the victims in the dark.
There is plenty of 20/20 hindsight and other criticisms, but the plea deal and selective prosecution/enforcement and overall dysfunction of our “judicial” system is due to people like Acosta who is and has been part of the system.
I could go on. Suggest you listen to Stephan Molyneux’s take and interviews with just a couple of the victims. Here’s one of Molyneux’s podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtiV0VJsc9c

Some miss a very important point that Acosta brought out,…….”a 12 year old case that had input and vetting at multiple levels of the Department of Justice”. I believe that to mean that “Horney Bubba” didn’t want his fix cut off and Epstein had Bubba & Pals over a barrel (Epstein picked up where Heftner left off with his/Clown Inc). Over a time the blackmail power loses its magical powers, powerful people lose their juice (like the looney Clintons).

Article on Zerohedge,7/11, says the decision to go easy on Epstein came from ” above his pay grade”, Epstein was part of Intelligence and he was told to stand down. According to the article this information was given to the Trump team during the vetting process. Acosta was asked about what happened with Epstein during vetting. There is also a lot of info coming fast and furious that the Maxwell family has heavy ties to Mossad. Speculation is Epstein was running a blackmail operation. Not sure what to think other than there is way more to this story then we know at this point.

Ditto. I was not impressed with his presser because I did not accept the idea that escape from federal charges had to be part of a plea deal. I knew enough about Epstein during that time, to know he was deeply involved with underage girls, and totally in bed with the rich and powerful. And this idea that it was some kind of “dark ages” when it came to women testifying about rape, is absurd. The eighties? Perhaps. But true institutional support and for victimized women began in the nineties. Easily. Acosta’s timeline made no sense.

In my opinion he was pressured by powerful people.

If Costa was a truly honorable man, he would have voluntarily resigned before that speech, which was given for no other reason that a “how-is-the-wind-blowing” assessment.

Right after his speech, I was the first to post on this site that I did not buy it, and Acosta’s staying was going to to be poison for Trump. I was assailed from all sides.

I am relieved Acosta is leaving. I love my president this is the best thing for Trump.

I don’t buy your honorable man argument. If he is stating a truth in that but for his interjection and subsequent success in securing a prison sentence and registration in the offender’s registry the guy would have skated on a state prosecution, then he secured better than the alternative. You state that his failure to secure even better terms somehow makes him dishonorable. I don’t agree.

Acosta was the only reason Epstein was classified as a tier 3 Sex offender, which will come back to bite him even harder now. The Palm Beach grand jury was bought off. He would have walked free otherwise.

L2, I appreciate your sentiment but disagree with your conclusion.
We don’t know how strong the Florida state evidence was, how many were willing to testify, how credible that testimony would have been, and all the other factors that go into prosecutorial discretion.
Plus Epstein hired both Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz as his defense team. Those are two superstar criminal lawyers to go up against. They know every trick to confuse/persuade a jury into a not guilty verdict or a hung jury.
We know from the presser yesterday that this was run up main DoJ, so Acosta was not free lancing the federal NPA.

And now I see Starr on Laura Ingraham talking about Epstein’s “situation” like it was some paperwork error. If Acosta has anyone to blame it should be Dershowitz and Starr that basically wanted Epstein to walk.

Wasn’t a D hit job IMHO: Trump brought him on board knowing what his part in the Epstein case was and his association in some really big scandals when he served under Bush; Trump had so many things to take care for US in DC, it’s called winning. Trump had the trump card in hand when he entered the race, that’s why he rang true to US.
Trump has been put in a position to take the “next in line” politicos and a lot of them are associated with the swamp and corrupt. Trump then lets them show their true selves and out they go.
Nothing that is happening in DC is accidental or even coincidental: it’s calculated winning and heads are spinning. Sarah Palin set US on the right track, Trump has supplied the train: We are the fuel IMHO.

I wonder if the postponement of Mueller’s dog and pony show before the House Committee is because they are worried that someone will bring up his handling of the Epstein case? I would LOVE to see a Republican start asking questions about that!!

See below. I was thinking the EXACT same thing! Trump knew all about Alex Acosta and had to know Epstein was a Mueller/FBI informant back in 2007. Trump was talking to the victim’s attorneys back then too. And Trump always had lawyers, private investigators, and law enforcement people tied into people and events. Guiliani would have known what was going on in 2007 too. We may never know all the stuff going on in the background of these events. We see the tip of the iceberg.

I do not believe in coincidences. Events fall in a certain order and manner and for a reason.
1- Mueller is set to testify
2- Epstein gets arrested
3- Published reports indicate Epstein was an FBI/Mueller informant in Bear Stearns case
4- Acosta holds press conference and is asked if Epstein was an informant for FBI/Mueller
5- Acosta says he can not answer and is non-responsive. Classic non-denial denial
6- THE NEXT DAY Mueller appearance is now rescheduled or CANCELLED
7- Acosta resigns

Cmon folks, do I have to draw a picture! The Dems were gonna use Mueller to give them an obstruction case. Team Trump fires back prepared to release a lot of Muellers dirty laundry. Mueller gets the message and a deal is made. Mueller rides off in the sunset and Acosta keeps quiet about Mueller being involved in the Epstein case. Mueller is a classic narcissist who cares about history and his image. His involvement with the Epstein deal would destroy that phony image he built. Acosta takes a bullet for Team Trump. Trump played this beautifully. Do you folks now realize why Mueller was picked? He is so freaking dirty and has so many skeletons in his closet, he could be manipulated by POTUS. Rudy Guiliani knew more about Mueller than anyone! Rudy must have been giddy about the Mueller appointment! “Don’t worry boss, I got this. We just need to let it play out before I make my moves”. Rudy knew all about Mueller and knew exactly when to leverage him. We have been watching Kabuki theatre for 2.5 years. That’s all this is. What did POTUS call Mueller? Highly conflicted? Ya got that right. There are no secrets in Washington. If Lindsey Graham is on Team Trump, then I know why he has had a bleep eating grin on his face for 2.5 years. I know why he wanted to protect Mueller and let him finish. Ole Lindsey knew Mueller was a dirty cop and could be pushed aside anytime. I know why Trump enemies like Mittens Romney stood down and said nothing. Romney knew Mueller was conflicted and POTUS could push him aside too. Its over. Well played Mr President. You have taken down most of the FBI and DOJ in a couple years. True they may not be in jail, but you took them down and you have them all leveraged. Maybe that is even better. MAGA!!!!

uh no, it ain’t better than jail time. In fact it’s nowhere close. Justice demands a full public accounting and without it rule of law/equal justice is dead and so is this nation. Civil war is the inevitable outcome if justice isn’t done.

A hostile take over of the Republican party and the bureaucracy it put in place is clearly in the cards: and Trump has dealt all the hands. Some are going to jail, hang in there.
Taking power off the power hungry and stopping globalization is the winning Trump deal for US.
The “USA will never be a socialist country” said POTUS Trump. He reset the tipping point, the republic will stand, but two generations from now it will have to be realigned. I have faith in the youngsters in the MAGA hats.

repsort
Blah blah blah! The rule of law and equal justice has always been dead. There will be no civil war! People love to puff up their chest with tough talk about what they are going to do. And then do NOTHING! Instead, they sit on their couch, watch TV, and have a cocktail. Nobody is gonna march or take up arms against anyone. They cant get off the couch to find the remote control nevermind march. People will keep quiet and take it. Thats how the world works. Its a big club and you aint in it!.

Good observations Pedro however I do believe people will go to jail, Trump ain’t letting this go. They tried to take him, his family and friends down. I just don’t see him being lenient in any way, shape or form.

Acosta exhibited horrible judgement. Imagine setting up a sweetheart plea deal for an egregious sex offender and keeping that deal secret from the victims, and also letting all of the sex offender’s accomplices off the hook completely.

Sometimes Trump picks bad people and they need to go. The important thing is that they go.

>>” Imagine setting up a sweetheart plea deal for an egregious sex offender and keeping that deal secret from the victims, and also letting all of the sex offender’s accomplices off the hook completely.”

Your ignorance is astounding. Folks on here who know me know I normally do NOT react to a post this way…HOWEVER…my late husband was a prominent FL State Attorney (the official term for the DA)…Acosta was KNOWN to have done the right thing to assure Epstein got jail TIME and sex offender registration. HAD ACOSTA NOT INTERVENED Epstein would have SKATED> So shut the heck up lurker. Go back and read some Q bs.
(And yes…I am furious)

Yes, it is surprising how many treepers have bought into the MSM presentation of Acosta’s role. Articles I have read show that the locals had already worked out a more lenient deal and Acosta intervened federally to insure Epstein was labeled a sex offender and got some jail time. MSM has misrepresented Acosta’s role solely because he is associated with PDJT.

If anyone listened to Acosta’s briefing yesterday (posted by Sundance as a separate article) he explicitly described how he became involved (the Florida state prosecutors were about to fumble the case badly and the DOJ intervened to ensure Epstein went to prison and was officially labeled a sex offender) and what the circumstances were and the role he (Acosta) played in the case (he wasn’t the sole decision maker for the prosecution).

Acosta was protecting the deep state and the elites, he wasn’t protecting Epstein per se.
He was even protecting Kings and Queens from other countries, by gum.
Do you seriously think Trump didn’t know about Acosta’s history with Epstein and the bush scandals?? He put him in place to go down, and down he’s gone. It’s not over yet heads are going to roll, power brokers are going to be powerless when Trump is done.

…Trump can’t know everything…he’s an outsider amongst career insiders…hundreds of thousands of insiders…..he’s one of the few in dc who’s ever really made a living outside of taking bribes.lobbyist ‘contributions’….every minute of every day someone is looking to set him up for one fiasco or another….ballyhooed by the ‘media’ if the mud sticks to the wall….I can’t say one way or another about Acosta…..but my president is on helluva fighter….

Can anyone imagine how much better off this country would be if the lame stream media wasn’t trying to bust the balls of everyone that is doing their darndest to improve things? Our VSGPDJT has already done more than the last nincompoops to occupy the White House since Ronald Reagan. I know, I know, I’m living a pipe dream.

If the media fawned over and provided glowing reports about POTUS the way they did Obama the US would be soaring high–which makes the accomplishments of our VSGEOTUS even more incredible! How has he managed so much with constant roadblocks and fake news!

The LSM, the deep state, and the elites are absolutely livid that a non politician who they can’t buy with love nor money won the election and they all will do anything to STOP Trump. Their TDS is astounding and beautiful to behold, enjoy the excitement it creates: they won’t survive.
Trump is like a rat terrier; he has the scent, they don’t have a chance.

Like Reagan using his Bully Pulpit to go around Congress and the media, POTUS is using Twitter and his impromptu press conferences to go around both, with a media that is infinitely worse than what Reagan ever faced.

Perhaps POTUS TRUMP should also announce that he is asking Congress to open their Criminal SexCapade Case Files for full transparency to the Americans who got suckered behind their backs into paying for them to go away.

There in lies the problem IMHO: the Clintons aren’t going to be the only ones going down. There are going to be elites, Rs, deep state, LSM, and celebrities going down- maybe even royalty from the countries still bowing to kings and queens……… pedophilia runs deep in this world: ergo they want to normalize it and make it a “right” to choose who they love.
Trump knew the list of grievances We had before he decided to run for POTUS: he’s Our hammer and they hate US for putting him in power.

Seriously. Or even some of the woke “feminist” freshman who spend their time libeling and staging unconscionable propaganda photo-ops about our patriotic, hardworking, front-line border patrol officers.

I know, I know, why even bother with hypocrisy on the left (it never ends) but these self-congratulating moralizers are really annoying, and they should be questioned over and over about covering for their predatory colleagues.

tominellay;
No problem. The msm won’t hesitate to give a pass to any Dem who’s name comes up, look how they have given pass to Bill, and are trying to put Trump name in first line of every article on Epstien.
There new first line; “Epstien, the notorious pedophile who’s ‘sweetheart deal’,( negotiated by Trumps forced to resign Labor Secretary Acosta) pled guilty today to,…”

Perhaps cleaned up a bit, but THATS what we will see, from here on out.

Its how they roll, do not expect ANY eaqual treatment, just because its sex trafficking in underage girls.

And I 3rd. “Biting them soon” never materializes. They just keep moving to the next fabricated or exaggerated hypocritical smear. I’m not disappointed he resigned (per other thread) but I certainly don’t think it’ll stop the media from propagandizing Epstein.

BTW Lee Stranahan has an interesting podcast on Epstein (I hate embedding links b/c of irrational paranoia … just search easy to find). Upshot: Acosta a red herring (no news there). But here’s the interesting one: links between Dershowitz and Cernovich on pushing to unseal files of a CIVIL case, and going against a victim — Dershowitz for the obvious purpose of trying to clear his name (more juicy stuff on that) and Cernovich — this is interesting — possibly baited into to helping to misdirect/confuse attention on the right w/ to Epstein. Stuff to unpack there — podcast interesting, even if we’d need to know more before evaluating the whole theory. No clue about Cernovich pro or con — but I find Dersh insufferable.

One thing Stranahan theorizes about Dersh is intriguing — why has he been a fixture on Hannity and Ingraham for a year? Stranahan wonders if he is (eye)balls deep in Epstein activity and trying to ingratiate himself with the right/Trump, anticipating the you-know-what to hit the fan.

A very classy way for PDJT to address this situation. Classy way for Acosta, as well.
Not sure if any other POTUS in memory has done this.
Usual D.C.. way is for POTUS to issue statement of support, usually in writing, even as aids are looking for back door to shove target out.

PDJT literally stood right beside him, and thats just not done. Affirms everything I have come to believe about PDJT.

How sadly true that is. But decency of the sort you talk about has always been a rare commodity, though sure seems more than ever it’s needed given the current climate of viscous attacks on Trump admin officials.

Noticed that immediately, PtG, and I love him for it. I think millions of Americans have become tone deaf to the incessant idiotic lies and attacks but notice our President’s responses, which resonate and are remembered.

What the anti-everythings throw at our President several times a day, he deflects with strength, wisdom and class. Even his spitball tweets are classy to me because they’re calling out stupidity and evil… and he’s doing it for us.

It’s really encouraging to see all of the “likes” for this well written thought as well as the following positive comments and “likes” of POTUS standing by his side respectfully. I, too, see this as a very dignified act; POTUS understands it mattered not who was wearing Acosta’s shoes. THAT slimebucket deal was way above his pay grade, rigging even the prison system. I also see it as peeling away some “deplorable Hispanics” to a better way of thinking.

Yes, class shows, and is instinctively respected. Might also have sent a message to his team; if you are unreasonably attacked, if you want to fight back, like kavanaugh I’ll support you. If you decide you want to withdraw, I’ll stand beside you.
Given the constant incoming his team is recieving, and given the standard D.C. responce, which is for POTUS to throw em under a bus, its a GOOD message to send.

He was impressive in the press conference yesterday, but he had to go. The deal made 12 years ago was ridiculous and any honest person would agree. The DOJ was likely culpable in the decision, but at the end of the day Alex Acosta was in charge of the Miami office. It was his call and it was a bad one. This controversy was not going away, nor should it…it was just a matter of time until he departed.

This is how I see it too — except I wouldn’t say it necessarily was “his call,” but it certainly was on his watch. Fair or unfair, that’s what it means to be in charge. You go down with the ship. I believe him that he did everything he possibly could — I’m not sure I believe the *reasons* he couldn’t do more — likely has to do with issues above his pay grade he can’t discuss — but I believe he tried. Still, was on his watch so yes I agree this result was inevitable the moment Epstein (FINALLY) was arrested.

Alex Acosta seems to understand that not only was the press never going to cover the Labor Department’s successes, but the press was going to use Epstein to damage the Administration and the First Family. Case in point:

The Trump-Epstein relationship is hard to disentangle with so many claims and denials. Epstein has told people since the election that he introduced Trump to FLOTUS, something others deny and which neither Trump or FLOTUS have ever described to anyone. https://t.co/s7vgg7BCeA

Epstein’s forehead and chin are each 50% too long…said otherwise, his face would have to be about 25% shorter to look normal. Perv-freak.
Anyway, who tipped Jeff off? How did he know to sell his jet 2 weeks before his arrest?
Did he plant fake porn all over the place?
Do we even know whether his properties are in his name?

If they can’t, in then end, connect Trump to Epstein criminally (which we know they can’t), they’ll float (and often have to retract) a drum beat of gossipy nonsense, designed to keep everyone confused, and to dirty the landscape so much no one has the context to absorb the truth if/when they ever hear it. See: “Trump-Russia Collusion.” If they couldn’t pin something false on Trump, they at least were determined to make it seem “hard to disentangle.”

Things that are “hard to disentangle” become partisan feuds, and people either take sides or close their ears and block it out.

Won’t work for the lying MSM like every other one of their lying narratives about PDJT has bombed out. We’re a long way from November 2020. This won’t be a story that takes out the President. The MSM’s “Watergate II” fantasy will remain permanently unfulfilled.

A new squirrel will surface very soon that will take this narrative off the front pages. And it will only get worse for them as the Epstein prosecution net draws in many of their “favs” with indefensible, disgusting evidence and charges. There’ll be no repeat of deals for the filthy billionaire child trafficker and rapist this time.

Another shameful performance by the “media” and Democrats in hounding another Trump admin official with liberal use of lies, distortions and limitless mean spirit. Meanwhile all three of the top Democrat leaders of Virginia persist in office under an ethical cloud and nary a word in the media or from other Democrats on that matter. Yes, the old double standards are still glued all over the Enemies of the People, the day that’s no longer permitted will be a time of glorious celebration.

Exactly right. In the case of Democrat 2X “standards”, they truly have none at all. Like in Alice in Wonderland Democrats’ words mean only what they say they mean and those definitions change on the hour. When Democrats “standards” are flexible enough to suit any occasion, just what “standards” could they claim to have?

Don’t know when the trend started, but the famous Bill line;
“Depends on what your definition of ‘is’, is” certainly kicked it into high gear.
The Clintons may have moved tobthe top of this list, of Satans most proud of creations. The damage those two have done to our Nation and the World.

NJF;
And the credit for this situation goes to?,..
Mitch McConnell! He totally OWNS this, by refusing to stop this rediculous ‘technically in session’ garbage.

Along with maintiaing the fillibuster rule, under equally rediculous justifications, and many other ways undermining MAGA, PDJT and US, McConnell and RepubliCON leadership have shown their ‘true colors’, and any Republican voter who plans to vote for McConnell should just change their registration to Democrat, IMHO.

I took satisfactions in voting against Mcstain, being I’m in Az.
Unfortunately, the RepubliCONS have a hierarchy. We didn’t benefit MUCH, from getting rid of Ryan, just got his second, McCarthy.
Not being discouraging, just saying we are gonna have to work, for many years, and numerous election cycles, to clean out RepubliCONS in Congress.
PRIMARYING is what scares the willies out of them; look at their concerted effort to undermine Tea party and Bannon effort.
THATS where we need to focus our attention.
The other danger to them is EXPOSURE. Every time they are forced to come out of ‘stealth’ mode, and openly subvert the will of RepubliCAN voters and MAGA, a few more voters red pill, and realise they are NOT “stupid”, “cowardly” or “incompetent”; they are COMPLICIT.

Yes, and how many does that make now? Republicans are great at buckling under pressure. This whole thing is about Epstein and not Acosta but the media and Democrats have flipped it around so now were on defense once again.

Funny the news media and Democrats aren’t calling for the resignation of Barry Kirchner the Democrat Palm Beach County State Attorney, attached at the hip to Chuck Schumer, who decided to let Epstein off the hook or the Democrat judge who gave him house arrest? Why is that, Captain Ron?

So, the Acosta resignation begs the question that if the plea deal was so bad and Epstein got off with a slap on the wrist, this is a much bigger story than the press is portraying it to be. Their short sighted concern is to get Trump of course, but if a cabinet official has to resign because he was part of it why aren’t they focused on the details of the case more? The press is populated with loathsome punks that need to be confronted Gorka style whenever possible.

Exactly. Most members of the press are just not that bright. Well, congress too. They will celebrate this minor victory (chasing Acosta out), while a gigantic pot of stink boils away underneath democrats and is about to explode all over them just in time for the 2020’s. Rumors he was shielded because he was connected to the IC (running underage honey traps for them?). But which branch, domestic or foreign? Uh oh. We know who was in charge of domestic at the time: rhymes with “duller.” Perhaps a question or two about that at the hearings, just to watch the reactions? Notice his testimony date is now delayed. Maybe they realized there is now another can of worms in play? Wonder if he will now be cancelled. Their Wiley Coyote schemes always blow up on them. Hah!

Playing right into the demonrats hands. This is exactly what they wanted. Divide and conquer. Make it so that no one wants to be in PDJTs administration for fear of professional and personal destruction. These people need to emulate our President. Stay strong and stay the course otherwise we are the defeated and our country will no longer exist in its former glory.

You write as though no Trump supporters wanted to see Acosta resign. Well I am one, and there are many of us. Acosta exhibited extremely poor judgment in the Epstein case that he led. Now hopefully the New York prosecutors can punish the guy, and his accomplices, as they should be punished.

A real supporter of_President_ Trump would know the facts, which are that Acosta was the only one who succeeded in bringing any consequences to Epstein, ever – and would not be repeatedly singing the MSM’s tune here. We know better, thanks to sundance’s excellent site and information.

He didn’t lead the case! It was the Palm Beach Police and State Attorney Barry Kirschner who led the case. It was a Democrat country judge who gave him house arrest. I lived there it’s very difficult to prosecute billionaire residents because they have tremendous clout in the politically sensitive country court system. They have let murders and rapist go free many times because of corruption!

You know many here considered Acosta a do nothing labor secretary and compliment in H1 visa issue.

Wouldn’t enforcement of E verify start with the labor secretary??

I don’t have a technical background in either issue.

I will say his explaination along with a quick read of the pertinent statutes in Fla at the time regarding “consent” made sense to me it seemed in this case he was pushing back on the river as best he could.

I just wonder though if Trump was ready or needed to replace this guy anyway. Any comments regarding his actual work as labor secretary.

My feel is that Acosta is a good, competent, reasonably honest man. However, it MAY be that it’s better he’s gone, so when the real Epstein s**t hits the proverbial fan, the lights will be focused where they belong: on the Democrat mafia of corruption, infanticide, pedophilia and murder.

What?
Acosta did everything possible for Epstein. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d been willing to provide Epstein with an on call 24 hour chef for those times Epstein had to do a sleepover in his private stockade room (which keeps being reported as prison).
Did you ever read the “Perversion of Justice” article in the Miami Herald?Ihttps://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article214210674.html
Acosta appears to be a scumbag sellout. Good riddance. If Trump wanted to draw attention to Epstein, all he had to do was put Acosta in the his cabinet spotlight.

Acosta had a good case against Epstein. His team had prepared a 53-page federal indictment and was prepped to seize Epstein’s computers. There were 50 witnesses, an extraordinary number. It wouldn’t have been too risky to bring this thing to trial. Instead, Acosta brokered a secret plea deal and Epstein got a slap on the wrist. Instead of 45 years in prison he did only 13 months in a jail wing the sheriff set up specially for him and allowed Epstein to come and go daily! And we now know Epstein was never properly monitored as a sex offender.

Adding insult to injury, Epstein’s four accomplices who procured girls for him and should have gone to prison for it were given immunity. They should have gone to prison too.

A 53-page federal indictment had been prepared in 2007, and subpoenas were served on several of Epstein’s employees, compelling them to testify before a federal grand jury. The court records reveal that emails began to fly back and forth between prosecutors and Epstein’s legal team. Those emails show that federal prosecutors kept acquiescing to Epstein’s demands.

Prosecutors allowed Epstein’s lawyers to dictate the terms of each deal that they drew up, and repeatedly backed down on deadlines, so that the defense essentially controlled the pace of the negotiations, the emails and letters show.

It’s clear, from emails and other records, that prosecutors spent a lot of time figuring out a way to settle the case with the least amount of scandal. Instead of charging Epstein with a sex offense, prosecutors considered witness tampering and obstruction charges, and misdemeanors that would allow Epstein to secretly plead guilty in Miami instead of in Palm Beach County, where most of the victims lived, thereby limiting media exposure and making it less likely for victims to appear at the sentencing.

“I’ve been spending some quality time with Title 18 [the U.S. criminal code] looking for misdemeanors,’’ the lead prosecutor, A. Marie Villafaña, wrote to Epstein’s lawyers on Sept. 13, 2007, adding that she was trying to find “a factual basis’’ for one or more non-sex-related crimes to charge him with.

The email chain shows that prosecutors sometimes communicated with the defense team using private emails, and that their correspondence referenced discussions that they wanted to have by phone or in person, so that there would be no paper trail.

No paper trail. Remind you of anyone? Hillary maybe? What normal defendant would receive such treatment?

lurker2– You write, “His team… was prepped to seize Epstein’s computers.” That sounds so juicy, but go ahead and tell us more!!

What??!? When the police served the warrant to search Epstein’s Palm Beach estate, all the computers were MISSING? And, there were wires sticking out of the walls where multiple young girls had testified there were hidden CAMERAS?

How do you suppose Epstein had just enough time to rip out the cameras, (but not patch up the walls) and dispose of all the computers?? Surely, surely, Epstein couldn’t have been tipped off, could he?

I find it very disingenuous of how you mention Epstein’s computers, but fail to continue with the most salient facts. It causes the remainder of your post to be suspect and of no value. You’re no better than the Miami Herald’s lazy reporter, Julie Brown. I’d think by now you’d know better than to believe the MSM. The verifiable, additional facts that you chose to exclude can be found in a multitude of other articles and police reports. Be better.

Hopefully President Trump will turn this around and go after the Commie Dems regarding Epstein, or the secret slush fund of taxpayer money used to pay off sexual harassment claims.
Time to tell these bloody wanker Communists to go to Hades.

Thats what the reporter, who wrote the book “Trafficking” said was what SHE was told, by her sources.
Actually, I believe she said it came from higher ups in DOJ/FBI, (technically ‘Bushs’ DOJ/FBI,) which didn’t want a prosecution that would ‘look’ political.

Funny how there is such concern, until the ‘age of Trump’, and then suddenly ‘looking political’ in Prosecutions, or non-prosecution decisions is of no concern.

This story BETTER be just beginning, with lots more chapters!

A real press would be ALL over this story. Truth to power, exposing corruption, its what a ‘free press’is SUPPOSED to be all about.

The case was dead before Acosta reigned in.
FL state prosecutors were about to let him go free without a sex register..
The 2 years they took to bungle the case some victims were not cooperative anymore and some praised Epstein. Democrats killed the case before Acosta at least got him some jail and registred.
DOJ was free to pursue more charges the next 10 years.. they didn’t.. Only when Trump installed his US attorneys

Fine, he may have had some responsibility for the lenient sentence but if he has to go for his role then we sure better see Bill Clinton go to prison for his DIRECT involvement … 26 times on board the Lolita Express to Pedo Island!

Yes, ‘concern trolls’, or just the kind of people you wouldn’t want sharing a foxhole?
It gets,…tiring addressing it, but leaving such posts unchallenged means others may be suaded, so difficult to resist.

The original Miami Herald writer who single-handedly brought the Epstein case back to life also said (on air) that much of what Acosta presented in the presser was either inaccurate, or phrased to make him look better. (She was preparing a fact-check article with documents and didn’t expect the resignation to have come quite so fast.) Julie Brown also said the story has begun to break internationally, because Epstein recruited and abused women in other countries too. That’s a bombshell.

So I don’t know who (if anyone) is telling the whole truth. In any case, Acosta (by his own admission) had become a political liability, and his continuing in the job would distract from Labor’s accomplishments. He had good reasons to resign.

Well, its done in any case. As for the international ramifications, I recall an article looking at the flight manifest, and saying the plane could be called “the disaster express”, because any time there was a disaster, Epstien was there.

We can guess why. None of us, sitting in our armchairs will ever KNOW, even taking reporters word for anything is,questionable.

The ‘deal’ he got stank, to high heaven for YEARS. Yet another dismissed ‘conspiracy theory’ proven valid.

Every time I read comments here I ask my self the same question: haven’t we learned anything by now? I told my six grandchildren that they better prepare to live in a two class society and make sure that they themselves are in the upper part. By two class I refer to societies of the third world, ruling elite and the masses. Nothing in the middle any longer.
It looks like that is the way we are heading.

I keep teaching mine to seek out those who think like them and prepare to move to another state to do so. When the damn inevitably breaks being in the middle of a progressive shit hole isn’t something I would wish on my worst enemies. Lord have mercy.

ABNORMALIZATION of anything-everything to do with the Trump administration by our fearless intrepid media, the “resistance” and all entities of the **seep state**. Their focus on job#1…. delay-derail-deny the legitimate actions and efforts of this administration….. are to be applauded……
now-onto the next target

Obama wasn’t even on anyones radar. Hillary was the presumptive nominee, at the time the deal was cut.
So, Bush DOJ/FBI, with Mueller in charge of FBI, Comey as #2, and no doubt McCabe sculking around somewhere.
IIRC, Alberto Gonzales as A.G.?
Again IIRC, deal struck the same day Hillary formerly announced.

Actually, the US Attorney General was the loathsome Michael Mukasey. Gonzalez finished up his career in 2007, and Mukasey was appointed to finish out Bush’s second term. Dutchman’s spot on about the FBI personnel, though.

Edgar Bronfman is the father of Sarah and Clara Bronfman (Clara from the NXIVM’s sex cult ) and Epstein was just arrested for sex trafficking and they are linked through Edgar Bronfman and the Seagram St Joseph Minerals deal

Steve Hoffenberg a fraudster hired Epstein and later was convicted of running a giant ponzi scheme, He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and Epstein wasn’t even deposed.
It was a giant ponzi scheme Eptein was the architect of it.

Epstein was deeply involved with Leslie Wexner

Wexner the Billionaire who founded Aberconbie and Fitch etc is connected to Edgar Bronfman and the Bronfman family. They found MEGA foundation together.

This lady in this You Tube video exposing all of this, thinks we will hear the name Eliot Spitzer again and It’s related to NXIVM and blackmail of sex crimes.

The Abercrombie & Fitch connection made me shake my head. I remember back in the day when A&F was super popular they were notorious for putting very young models into very adult situations in their advertising. Very inappropriate not only considering the ages of the models but the even younger ages of the consumers. Maybe that was sleazebag Epstein’s idea.

Unless you are of a “certain” age..you may not know that A&F was founded in 1872 or thereabout..it did not become the ..kids store until the late 90’s or so..I had the good fortune to shop in the NYC original store in the 60’s and 70’s…, old school class was glad my son got to see it when he was about 12 or so..he never forgot it..really sad to see it gone…also the Pres. of A&F Mike Jeffries was an “interesting” character..he and family were clients when they moved here from NYC..

Generally, the people who get prosecuted Federally are the stupid, the unlucky, the politically not connected, and the people somebody wants to whack. US Attorneys pick and choose cases, and there are a lot to choose from. Criminal referrals come from all of Federal law enforcement , not just FBI. The winnowing starts early, with the discovery of criminal activity. Might not meet various thresholds for accepting prosecution, so hand over to state and locals or close case. The US Attorney N Cal handed a huge criminal case off (Hunters Point development) to the SF Ethics Commission! They also look at how much fight the accused can afford to put up. A wealthy individual that can afford a top legal team will tie up assets. Then there is the idea of making your boss (President) look good, which sometimes backfires, as in the bizarre prosecution of Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Campeon. In short, the Federal justice system has all of the fairness of a carnival midway game.

There is nothing here below the surface. Take the presser at face value. Epstein thing is going to get much uglier because of the girl[name]-[name] CD confiscated from Epstein’s NYC safe last Saturday evening. Acosta knows that, and that his earlier involvement a decade ago would be an ongoing administration distraction. He did the right thing defending his actions and then resigning, and PDJT did the right thing praising him publicly.

The rest of the heli presser was great:
—On census citizenship question: I did not back down. I backed up and found a better solution.
—On AOC v Pelosi: Pelosi deserves more respect. She is not a racist.
—On Iran: They had better be VERY careful.
—On social media bias: They clearly are. It has happened to me and many others. We will sort it out. (And yesterday’s gathering cemented PDJT with those gathered for the 2020 election.)
—On Mueller: No obstruction, No collusion. Its over. How many bites at the do-over apple will Dems take while they do NOTHING on immigration, infrastructure, drug pricing?

PDJT’s command of both breadth and depth, with pitch perfect spontaneous soundbites, is truly amazing.

I can’t believe that I’m reading comments that Acosta was an honorable man, blah blah blah. Forget the Epstein issue for a moment. Mulvaney had to keep cleaning up Acosta’s crap. Every chance Acosta got he was refusing to implement any of PDJT’s regulatory reforms. And was outright lying to Trump about it. That’s why Mulvaney had to shadow his every move. If not, Acosta would still be siding with the unions against Trump every single chance he could. The Labor Department statistics looked good because of Trump’s policies. Not because of a single thing that Acosta did.
Now you throw the Epstein fiasco into the mix and what a hot mess. Acosta did so many things out of the norm with this plea deal that if you were trying to look like you were guilty of taking a bribe, your behavior would look exactly like his. This is a prime example of an idiot government employee that wouldn’t survive for a minute trying to hold down a private sector job. He would have been fired from so many jobs that it would take a forest just to print his resume’. Good riddance. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer backstabbing prick!

It was inevitable. Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets! When the Democrats get even the slightest opportunity to take out a Republican, they go for the throat and the Republican slinks away. All except for POTUS. And that’s why they hate him so much.

This thread reminds me of the early days after Sessions recused. Most of the participants here were Sessions fans and got terribly upset and hurled insults at anyone who questioned Sessions’ judgements and actions. Little by little over the course of 2 years most of them convert. They had to. The facts were just too obvious and it took the most bizarre contortions of logic to excuse what he had done.

Read all of the Miami Herald articles. Read the grisly details of what Epstein did, and how both state and federal prosecutors bungled the case and let Epstein and his accomplices go with little or no punishment. Acosta had a good case but he and his team worked hard to accommodate Epstein. That’s not justice, especially when children are the victims.

If there is a clear separation between the Florida State’s Attorney’s handling of this case (they botched it) and the U.S. Attorney’s handling of the case (they saved it – at least they got jail time, registration as a sex offender, etc…), then what is this:

And in a Sept. 21, 2007, email from then-Palm Beach State Attorney Barry Krischer, whose office prosecuted Epstein, wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Marie Villafana, who was the prosecutor handling the federal matter: “Glad we could get this worked out for reasons I won’t put in writing. After this is resolved I would love to buy you a cup at Starbucks and have a conversation.”

Don’t know if it is true or not, but someone said Sat or Sunday on Faux that Mick Mulvaney was pushing him out. Wanted him gone. I don’t know if true or just a rumor started to damage Mick and the TRUMP admin or not, just passing it on. Food for tho’t.

Mick stabbed us in the back on immigration before… Kelly stabbed us in the back on immigration too.